– but in his wheelhouse there are few actors in
movie history better at what he does than him. There is also a little bit of
range in his performances, which are trickier than many think. Playing Conan the
Barbarian or The Terminator may seem easy – but playing roles like that have
led to awful performances from other actors. Arnold has always been charming
and likable – he looks like He-Man, but he’s still relatable and funny. He came
along at the perfect moment for an actor like him to become an action star –
and I’ve always preferred him to the like of Stallone and others. He has made
(more) than his fair share of crap, but rarely do I think Arnold is the problem
in one of his movies.

His
latest, Maggie, probably seems like a little bit of a stunt – both for Arnold
and the movie itself. This isn’t a big budgeted action movie – but a small,
character driven movie. Yes, it’s a zombie movie, but like many zombie movies
its more interested in using as zombies as a metaphor for something else rather
than being full of straight up zombie killing action. The whole movie hinges on
whether or not Arnold, who we have seen killed literally thousands of people
during his action career, can bring himself to kill one person – his daughter –
before she puts not only his life, but the lives of many others, in jeopardy.

The
movie takes place as the zombie outbreak is slowly being gotten under control.
No, there is no cure – if you’re bit, you’re going to turn into a zombie, and
you will die, but humans have done a good job at quarantining the victims, and
protecting the uninfected. The twist here is simple – it takes 8 weeks or so
for someone bitten to turn. In what is probably not the brightest decision in
human history – but a humane one – they let the infected spend that time with
their families. When the time is up, they are to be turned back over to
quarantine – where they will handle it, they say humanely, but no one is buying
it. Arnold plays Wade, a mid-Western farmer (and no, I don’t think they explain
the accent), who teenage daughter, Maggie (Abigail Breslin), ran off a while
ago – and he’s finally able to track her down and bring her home. But yes, she
has been bitten, and will turn. Wade sends his younger children, from his
second wife Caroline (Joely Richardson) away while Maggie comes home to protect
them. Caroline stays behind – she married Wade after he became a widower, and
loves Caroline. The local doctor tells Wade that it would be kinder to end
Maggie’s life instead of sending her to quarantine. The local Sheriff is
sympathetic – his deputy, not so much – but has a town to look after. They will
be keeping tabs on Maggie.

Schwarzenegger
and Breslin are both excellent in the movie. Arnold spends his time walking
around not unlike a zombie himself – he is sad and depressed about what is
happening to Maggie. He’s her father – he promised his late wife he would look
after her daughter, and now look what has happened. He knows, deep down, that
when Maggie turns he will have to kill her. Turning her back over to the
authorities would be cruel – not killing her would be dangerous, as he finds
out the hard way when he encounters two zombies – a father and a small child –
whose mother couldn’t turn them in, or kill them, herself. He just doesn’t think
he can do it. Caroline tries to talk him into it – there’s even a scene where
it looks like she may take matter into her own hands. For her part, Breslin may
be even better. She’s essentially terminally ill – knows she is going to die,
and has to make peace with it. She talk to some of her old friends – including one
who is also infected. Breslin handles her role with sensitivity and compassion –
she moved me more in her quiet performance than someone like Shailene Woodley
(who was good, but in a bad movie) in The Fault in Our Stars. She doesn’t try
to overtly elicit audience sympathy – which is why she gets it.

The
problem with the movie isn’t these two performances then – it’s that the whole
movie is kind of one note. Death hangs over every scene, and it’s so
suffocating that all the life in the movie drains out of it. Director Henry
Hobson and screenwriter John Scott 3 have a good idea at its core, but don’t really
have anywhere to go with once it’s been established. They repeat themselves,
the movie moves at a snail’s pace, and not a whole lot happens. We wait for the
finale – where we know someone will have to make a decision – because the
entire middle part of the movie seems to be just killing time until we can make
it there. I kept waiting for at least one happy scene in the movie – but when
it arrives (a visit to Maggie’s mother’s garden), it’s played with the same
morose tone as the rest of the movie. It’s deadening.

Maggie
is an interesting take on the zombie movie – which in many ways is overexposed
right now with The Walking Dead. But at least it’s not another George A. Romero
clone (which, let’s face, Walking Dead is, even if it’s a good one), nor is it
another comedy, poking fun at the genre. It’s a film that legitimately tries to
do something completely different with the genre. I admire it for that. I didn’t
much like it though.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.